State Widow Pension Scheme (WPS), Tripura

What is the State Widow Pension Scheme in Tripura?

State Widow Pension Scheme (WPS) is a social security pension for widows run by the Directorate of Social Welfare and Social Education, Government of Tripura, and funded entirely from the state budget. WPS appears at serial 31 in the Directorate's published list of 51 social security schemes and is one of the 46 Social Welfare schemes onboarded to the Tripura DBT portal.

The Economic Review of Tripura 2024-25 records that the department runs 34 social pension schemes in total to 31 state-run schemes including Mukhyamantri Samajik Sahayata Prakalpa, plus three centrally sponsored NSAP schemes. State Widow Pension Scheme sits inside the state-run group, alongside but separate from the centrally sponsored Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme.

The rate is Rs 2,000 per month. Notification No. F.3(72)DSWE/PEN.CELL/2020, issued at Agartala on 19 September 2022 by the Education (Social Welfare and Social Education) Department, revised the monthly rate of every social security pension in the state with effect from 1 September 2022. The State Widow Pension Scheme went from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 a month in that order, which also states that all other terms and conditions notified from time to time remain unchanged.

How large the scheme is. The Economic Review of Tripura 2024-25 puts WPS coverage at 936 beneficiaries. That makes it one of the smaller schemes on the state list, because most widows in Tripura are booked under the much larger Widow and Deserted Woman Pension (WDP), which covered 58,135 people in the same year. Taking the widow, deserted and unmarried women categories together, 64,869 women drew a state social pension in 2024-25. The largest single category on the state's pension rolls.

Who is eligible for the Tripura State Widow Pension Scheme?

You can be sanctioned WPS if:

• You are a widow and can produce your husband's death certificate.
• You are a resident of Tripura. WPS is paid from the state budget and is limited to residents.
• You are not already drawing another social security pension, in particular the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme, the Widow and Deserted Woman Pension, or a pension in a worker or disability category.
• You hold an Aadhaar-linked bank account in your own name for the DBT credit.
• Your name is in the ration card database of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Tripura.

You cannot apply, or the claim will not be sanctioned, if:

• You have remarried. The entitlement rests on widowhood.
• You are already on another pension roll of the same department. Tripura pays one social security pension per person.
• You are not resident in Tripura.
• You cannot produce a death certificate for your husband, or the particulars on it do not match your own records.
• The case fails the department's verification on the ground.

The Directorate has not published a separate consolidated eligibility notification for WPS setting out an age line or income ceiling. Ask your CDPO office for the criteria being applied in the current year, and ask for any refusal in writing.

What documents are required for the Tripura widow pension?

Take the originals with you along with self-attested photocopies. The CDPO office returns originals after verification.

How to apply for the State Widow Pension Scheme in Tripura

1. Register your husband's death and obtain the death certificate from the registrar at your gram panchayat, nagar panchayat or municipal body. Nothing moves without it.
2. Collect the social security pension application form from the Child Development Project Officer (CDPO) of your ICDS project, or from the District Inspector of Social Education (DISE) office in your district.
3. Complete the form and attach the death certificate, residence proof, Aadhaar, ration card, bank passbook copy and photographs.
4. Submit the application to the CDPO and take a dated acknowledgement.
5. Cooperate with the field enquiry. The CDPO verifies the case on the ground and forwards it with observations to the Directorate for sanction.
6. Get your bank account Aadhaar-seeded while the case is under scrutiny, so that the first monthly credit through the Beneficiary Management System does not fail.

There is no citizen self-service application form for WPS on the Directorate website. The department's MIS portal at swsemis.tripura.gov.in is for departmental users, and bms.tripura.gov.in carries the beneficiary record and the payment rather than the first-stage application.

How much does the Tripura widow pension pay and when?

State Widow Pension Scheme pays Rs 2,000 a month, which comes to Rs 24,000 over a financial year. Payment is monthly, through Direct Benefit Transfer into the beneficiary's own Aadhaar-linked bank account, released through the Beneficiary Management System. The rate is identical across Tripura's social pension schemes after the September 2022 revision, so a widow drawing WPS receives the same monthly figure as an old-age or disability pensioner in the state.

Across all 30 state-run schemes, Tripura pays 2.19 lakh beneficiaries at Rs 2,000 each, a monthly outgo of Rs 34.40 crore. Counting the NSAP pensions as well, 3.87 lakh people received Rs 838.51 crore in social security pensions in 2024-25.

How to check your widow pension status in Tripura

1. Ask the CDPO office whether the case has been forwarded, sanctioned or rejected, quoting your acknowledgement.
2. Check the bank passbook for a monthly social security pension credit.
3. Confirm with your bank that the account is Aadhaar-seeded and active.
4. Escalate on the Tripura CM Helpline, 1905, or through grievance.tripura.gov.in if there is no answer.

Common reasons a Tripura widow pension is rejected or stopped

• Death certificate missing or mismatched, for example a spelling difference between the certificate and the applicant's Aadhaar.
• Duplicate pension — the applicant already draws WDP, IGNWPS or another pension.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, dormant, or closed.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the bank account and the sanction order.
• Remarriage, which ends the entitlement from the date it occurs.
• Verification failure, including cases where the beneficiary has moved out of the state or died and the family has not reported it.

Correct a name or account mismatch through the CDPO office rather than by filing a fresh application, which usually just creates a second pending case.

Help and grievance redressal

• Directorate of Social Welfare and Social Education, Malancha, Ujan Abhoynagar, Agartala, West Tripura to 0381-2326033, socialwelfare-tr[at]gov[dot]in
• Tripura CM Helpline 1905, with a WhatsApp channel on 6033374544
• State grievance portal, grievance.tripura.gov.in
• Your CDPO or District Inspector of Social Education, who holds the file and is the first place to go for anything about sanction or payment

Applying for a widow pension in Tripura is free. No agent can charge a fee to have your name entered on the pension roll.